On head shaving

By Park Moo-jong

What are they doing now? Are they going to become Buddhist monks?

A new diplomat from Europe jokingly asked me the other day, apparently surprised by a massive head shaving scene by sit-in protestors downtown in Seoul.

Having your head shaved is popular among demonstrators as a symbolic gesture to show their strong resolution to attain their goals.

To be more precise, head shaving is the practice of removing the hair from a person's head with a clipper, not with the razor that monks use.

People know well why the leaders of various rallies, protests and demonstrations have their hair cut in a ceremony.

But the head shaving, not easily found elsewhere in the world, has become too common a practice in Korea.

Sick of the protestors' stereotyped "rite," a citizen quipped, "They will be happy that they don't need shampoo for the time being and feel cool, won't they?"

A few days before the first anniversary of the Sewol sinking, some 50 bereaved families of the victims and their supporters had their heads shaved at Gwanghwamun Square.

Executive committee members of the Seoul Drama Festival followed suit during a press conference in Daehangno last week to protest the temporary closure of the ARCO Art Theater for repair during the festival period.

Unionized officials of Daejeon, Incheon and Sejong Cities did so Monday, vowing to foil the government's plan to reform the pension system.

According to Wikipedia, at different times and places, people have shaved their heads for very diverse reasons: practical, convenience, low maintenance, religious, cultural or aesthetic. So, a shaven head has widely varied connotations depending on the context.

When it comes to head shaving in Korea, however, we used to think of Buddhist monks, prisoners of the past and military recruits. Of course, until the 1960s, students at secondary schools were forced to wear their hair short as a shameful legacy of the Japanese colonial rule (1910-1945).

Head shaving is the very symbol of "leaving home" to become a Buddhist monk. It means the monks' resolution to live cloistered lives and look different from other religions' disciples.

But now, head shaving has become ubiquitous with demonstrators. Almost all demonstrations are held with the ceremony of the organizers' head shaving.

Such a practice is no longer the monopoly of the monks, Almost everyone, including politicians, teachers, illegal foreign workers, medical doctors, public servants and farmers, to name a few, do not hesitate to cut their hair short in protest.

Two decades ago, Kim Young-jin, then National Assemblyman from the opposition party, surprised the world and caught the attention of photographers from across the world for having his head shaved in front of the World Trade Organization headquarters in Geneva in protest against the liberalization of rice imports under the Uruguay Round.

The lawmaker served as the agriculture-forestry minister in 2003 in the government of the late former President Roh Moo-hyun.

Head shaving can sometimes be helpful for sports people who are in a severe slump. Former Major League pitcher Park Chan-ho, World Cup star Cha Doo-ri and numerous male athletes have done this

Our history shows that Koreans traditionally disliked cutting their hair. In 1895, the then pro-Japan Kim Hong-jip Cabinet under the reign of Kong Kojong proclaimed an ordinance prohibiting topknots only to face strong resistance from the people.

Koreans used to regard it a grave impiety to treat their hair and flesh they inherited from their parents.

Of course, there was a time when cops were busy cutting the long hair of young people on the streets with scissors. When wearing long and shaggy hair was in vogue among young men in 1960s and 1970s to the lament of barbers, the government banned it, citing the "bad look" together with miniskirts.

Ironically, Samson in the Bible lost his power after losing his hair, decoyed by Delilah. Demonstrators of today in Korea lose their hair voluntarily to gain strength.

However, it is doubtful that shaving your head in public as an expression of a "resolution to fight" to attain a desired goal through street demonstrations has been effective.

They might have been successful in strengthening solidarity among their colleagues and supporters. But history shows few positive results. They lost only their "blameless" hair.

The frequent scenes of mass shaving only make ordinary citizens watching them feel uneasy because they signal an extreme struggle, strike or disorder.

Shaving your head in public was certainly a radical tool to stimulate fellow demonstrators to renew their will to secure their interests. But it is too frequent and the people are fed up with street performances.

Rather, they better gain wisdom on how to get the ordinary citizens' support without causing inconvenience to them through legal and peaceful demonstrations on the street.

I also hope that TV networks will stop broadcasting the frequent grim scenes. There are already too many shaven-headed actors we can see on screen such as Vin Diesel, Dwayne Johnson and Jason Statham of the latest box office hit "Fast & Furious 7" and Samuel Jackson of "Kingsman: The Secret Service 2015," etc.

-Park Moo-jong is the Korea Times advisor. He served as the president-publisher of the paper from 2004 to 2014.